If you're creating a new page for a pistol make sure to add [[Category:Gun]] and [[Category:Pistol]] to the page so that it will be listed at the bottom of the page. Please also post a comment on the discussion page for this page regarding the new pistol so that it can be added to the gallery.

Terminology note: in American gun law, a "handgun" is defined as a weapon which is designed to be fired with a single point of contact with the shooter's body, with no reference to the weapon's caliber. Any pistol which incorporates a forward grip (such as the Beretta 93R) or a stock (such as the Mauser C96) is instead classified as either a "Short-Barrelled Rifle" or an "Any Other Weapon" (except for C&R pistols with original production stocks, which don't count because reasons). This is not the technical definition; a handgun is any weapon which is primarily designed for a single-point grip and fires a pistol cartridge, or any revolver which lacks a shoulder stock and forward grip (ie, which is not a revolving rifle, cylinder-fed grenade launcher, revolver cannon or full-size shotgun), regardless of what it fires.

"Pistol" is sometimes held to refer only to weapons with a single chamber in order to differentiate such weapons from revolvers, but this is not a formal classification. However, revolvers are placed in Category:Revolver rather than on this page.

Muzzle-Loading

Breech-Loading

Manual Repeaters

Self-Loading